My dear acquaintances, I wish you laughter and music in 2021. I wish you time in the company of friends and loved ones. And I wish you confidence that the coming year will be better than the departing one.

Thank you for your companionship on our journey around the sun. You helped make a challenging year easier and I’m grateful for your company.

The year is rapidly running out of hours, which is great, to be honest. Very few people won’t be thrilled to see 2020 disappearing in their rearview mirror later this week.

However, there are still a few things that I want to take care of before I close out the year:

• Make some year-end donations. I’m lucky enough to be able to make charitable donations throughout the year, but I know a lot of nonprofits are really hurting this year. I want to do what I can, particularly for my local aid organizations directly helping those stressed by the pandemic (particularly since our government apparently remains unconcerned about everyone’s welfare).
• Spend down my transit and flex spending accounts. Again, I was lucky in that my h.r. person was able to get us the ability to stop putting money into our transit accounts we stopped commuting, but because I did so much work travel at the start of the year, I built up a little buffer I need to distribute.
• Write the last handful of holiday letters. We sent out most of our holiday cards on Christmas day, but I saved a few that I wanted to write actual letters in. I did a few yesterday and should write the last three tomorrow.
• Clean the kitchen and bathroom floors. Let’s be honest: While starting the year with a neat apartment would be great, it’s just not going to happen. But I absolutely can (and should) wash the floors in my two smallest spaces.
• Eat lunch outside tomorrow. I’ll admit eating my midday meal al fresco has been more enjoyable on some days than others this week, but I definitely think it’s been good for me to spend time outside. My time off is going to end on a rainy note (precipitation is predicted for at least three of the next five days), so I definitely need to be outside tomorrow, regardless of the temperature.
• Bake cookies. I haven’t done it for the first week of my vacation and I’d hate to spend the last five days without homemade treats.
• Finish one more book. For the first time in years, I’m not going to average a book a week for the year. I intended to really work on getting to 52 books during my time off, but at some point it stopped being a stretch goal and just became ridiculous. However, if I can wrap up one more book, that will put me at 40 for the year.

What are you hoping to wrap up before 2020 hits the road?

Postmodern Jukebox songs are always fun, and adding Olivia Kuper Harris and Rayvon Owen on vocals for “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” does justice to the Frank Loesser tune.

Rudi and I are still trying to figure out how to ring in New Year’s Eve this year. Like everything else in 2020, our decade-plus-long-tradition of a movie marathon at the cinema and dinner out with friends is obviously off the table. Cases are on the rise here, as well as everywhere else, so I put a hold on our plan to watch Wonder Woman 1984 with friends sometime this week until the numbers start going down again. We can most certainly watch movies online, which would make the last night of 2020 … just like every other night. I guess what I really want — a bonfire or a physical dumpster fire to go along with the metaphoric one we’ve had this year — isn’t really possible. But I want one anyway. I wonder if the neighboring businesses would mind if I borrowed their trash facilities for the night…?

First, a confession: My #tbtbsanta box arrived a month ago. I held off on opening it, first as a reward and later as a talisman, warding off bad seasonal events.

It should be noted that I looked at the box every day. I considered opening it. And so I left it unopened — and my poor Santa probably wondering what in the world was the matter with me.

But today, today I woke up and it was sunny. I realized I’d made it through both Thanksgiving and Christmas without breaking and I felt a little more like myself than I have since early October. And I knew it was time to open my box.

My Santa, Jordan, didn’t know when she sent me the box that I was going to hold onto it like a life raft. But the box was filled with good, buoyant things that make me even gladder now that I’ve opened it.

Already, we’re off to a great start: I drink a ton of cocoa, so am super excited to have new varieties to try. I didn’t have a new ornament for this year, because I hadn’t gone anywhere to get one. And the card made me guffaw!

I love purple. I love sparkles. I love nail polish. Put them all together and we have a winner!

Okay, on to the packages! (For the record, I also have Peanuts Christmas wrapping paper….)

First up, there is a fun tiny planter shaped like a Jane Austen bust so I can bring my gardening inside for the season.

Second, there are two books I’ve been wanting to read, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ well-received The Water Dancer and Ten Blind Dates by Ashley Elston, a Christmas-themed romance.

Finally, there was a gift for Corey — a catnip-filled croissant:

Thank you, Jordan, from both Corey and me. We absolutely love our gifts!

I came across this song, “This Love Won’t Break Your Heart,” by Annalise Emerick, as I was working on my Christmas mix. While I sometimes include New Year’s songs on my cd, I opted not to include it this year. But it is beautiful and I wanted to share it with you, particularly as we head into this final week of 2020.

Happy Boxing Day, everyone!

I hope you had a nice Christmas! Things here went fine. We ate cinnamon buns for breakfast, had a walk around the neighborhood, and talked with our parents. We cooked a modest feast together, opened presents, and watched White Christmas and the next episode of Dash and Lily.

And now we will rest and relax for another week before I need to think about adulting again. There will be more cooking (apparently I can only handle three-four dishes a day, so our Christmas dishes are being spread out through at least one more day, if not two), baking, reading, and knitting. I will listen to Christmas music and new music and watch Christmas movies (which I just couldn’t do for the most part before the holiday). I am definitely sleeping in. There may be some video chats and phone calls with friends, and we are trying to set up a socially distanced movie night with a couple local friends in our bubble. There will be time outside during daylight hours, even on the chilly days. And there will be lots of time with Rudi, after so much time apart. I’m looking forward to all of it.